WASHINGTON – Today, China opened the world’s longest sea bridge, a 34-mile bridge and tunnel connection between mainland China and the semi-autonomous cities of Hong Kong and Macau. The project’s 4.2-mile tunnel creates a channel large enough for cargo ships to pass through. In the last decade, China has begun a multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, designed to create a global trade superhighway connecting China to Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia by land and sea.

“For centuries, the United States set the infrastructure standard, but we’ve let partisan politics and backwards thinking put us in neutral. China is thinking big, making investments and focusing on the future, while we can barely maintain highways built by Eisenhower,” said Congressman Delaney. “We have the strongest economy in the world, but if we continue to do nothing, year after year, we will eventually fall behind. Imagine a project like this being built in our country – we need infrastructure to bridge the economic gap between the zip codes that are booming and the places left behind. Infrastructure creates good-paying jobs – which we still desperately need – boosts long-term economic growth, makes us more globally competitive and improves people’s quality of life. As President, I will make a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan a priority, combining increased public investment, a new national infrastructure bank and public-private partnerships.”